Empowered Prayer: Trusting God in Uncertain Times
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God wants us to pray believing that our prayers matter. Let me say that again: God wants us to pray believing that our prayers matter. Now look, I'm the first one to say that we don't understand everything about this. We don't understand precisely, and if anybody tells you that they do understand it precisely, I think they're not being completely honest or at least not being completely self-aware. [00:03:16]
We believe in divine sovereignty. We believe that God is not making it up as He goes along in the world, that God has a plan of the ages that He's working out from beginning to end, and that plan of the ages just has a marvelous unfolding throughout the plan of human history, and that plan of the ages comes down to the way God works in individual lives. [00:03:52]
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. See what it says here? The king's heart, the heart of a king, is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He, meaning God, turns it wherever He wishes. God holds and can guide the human heart. [00:05:02]
God doesn't need to do violence to the human heart to guide it. He may do it through simply arranging other circumstances, like the bank of a river, to guide the flow where He wants it. I want you to consider that right now. Isn't it fascinating that in our present moment, when we have all these concerns about the coronavirus or COVID-19 or whatever it is that you want to call it, when we have those concerns and the uncertainty all around us, you better believe that God is using that in a big way in some individual lives to channel their hearts right where He wants them to be. [00:07:06]
We need to leave aside our longings for a guarantee, and we need to just trust God. We need to have this kind of heart: Lord, I know that you can change the human heart. Lord, I know that you can do this without doing violence to the human will. Lord, I know that you answer prayer. Lord, I know that my prayers make a difference. [00:08:28]
Prayer is a self-improvement exercise, but it is not only a self-improvement exercise. It moves the hand of God in ways that we can't calibrate, in ways that we can't dictate, in ways that we can't fully understand. But prayer moves the hand of God. You want to pray for your friends and relatives and neighbors who don't yet know Jesus Christ? Pray that the veil will be removed from their eyes. [00:09:37]
Pray that God would fill people with hope. Pray that God would fill people with comfort. Pray that God would fill people with perspective. We need perspective in this time. You know, I don't want to make light of our present difficulty because it is difficult, and maybe the uncertainty of the future is even more alarming to many of us. But let me tell you something: humanity has faced these times before, and in Jesus Christ, God's people have conquered over them, and we will conquer over them in Jesus again. [00:11:50]
This is an unbelievable opportunity for us to come to the knowledge that our life is bigger than what we possess. I'll say it again: our life is bigger than what we possess. There are things of the Spirit, there are things of the kingdom of God that are bigger and more important, and we are foolish if we put everything into the here and now. [00:18:00]
Progressive Christianity is basically a reaction against Bible-believing, Bible-confident Christianity. As Agnes mentioned, one of the things that progressive Christianity would really protest is the idea that Jesus was actually something of a legal substitute for our sins, that God punished the Son on our behalf. This is absolutely, undeniably a clearly stated biblical doctrine. [00:22:18]
There are many dimensions to the work of Jesus at the cross, many dimensions, and the legal or penal substitution aspect is just one. You might say that it's the most important or one of the most important ones, but Jesus did so much more at the cross than die as the substitute in my place. But surely that is an important part of it. [00:24:11]
God has answers for us in His word, but we don't want to hear them. Then the problem isn't, "Oh, I just like to ask questions." No, the problem is you don't want the answers that God provides. So we shouldn't make people feel guilty or wrong or anything like that for asking legitimate questions. This is an important part of discipleship, of learning the Christian faith, of just walking through what God wants us to walk through as believers. [00:25:22]
God is in control, and prayer changes things. So let's be prayerful, let's be excited. Let's be excited not in circumstances, not in statistics, not in economics—maybe not a lot around us to get excited about—but listen, God is still on His throne, and God still works and moves. [00:31:37]
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We believe in divine sovereignty. We believe that God is not making it up as He goes along in the world, that God has a plan of the ages that He's working out from beginning to end, and that plan of the ages just has a marvelous unfolding throughout the plan of human history, and that plan of the ages comes down to the way God works in individual lives. [00:03:52]
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. See what it says here? The king's heart, the heart of a king, is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He, meaning God, turns it wherever He wishes. God holds and can guide the human heart. [00:05:02]
God doesn't need to do violence to the human heart to guide it. He may do it through simply arranging other circumstances, like the bank of a river, to guide the flow where He wants it. I want you to consider that right now. Isn't it fascinating that in our present moment, when we have all these concerns about the coronavirus or COVID-19 or whatever it is that you want to call it, when we have those concerns and the uncertainty all around us, you better believe that God is using that in a big way in some individual lives to channel their hearts right where He wants them to be. [00:07:06]
We need to leave aside our longings for a guarantee, and we need to just trust God. We need to have this kind of heart: Lord, I know that you can change the human heart. Lord, I know that you can do this without doing violence to the human will. Lord, I know that you answer prayer. Lord, I know that my prayers make a difference. [00:08:28]
Prayer is a self-improvement exercise, but it is not only a self-improvement exercise. It moves the hand of God in ways that we can't calibrate, in ways that we can't dictate, in ways that we can't fully understand. But prayer moves the hand of God. You want to pray for your friends and relatives and neighbors who don't yet know Jesus Christ? Pray that the veil will be removed from their eyes. [00:09:37]
Pray that God would fill people with hope. Pray that God would fill people with comfort. Pray that God would fill people with perspective. We need perspective in this time. You know, I don't want to make light of our present difficulty because it is difficult, and maybe the uncertainty of the future is even more alarming to many of us. But let me tell you something: humanity has faced these times before, and in Jesus Christ, God's people have conquered over them, and we will conquer over them in Jesus again. [00:11:50]
This is an unbelievable opportunity for us to come to the knowledge that our life is bigger than what we possess. I'll say it again: our life is bigger than what we possess. There are things of the Spirit, there are things of the kingdom of God that are bigger and more important, and we are foolish if we put everything into the here and now. [00:18:00]
Progressive Christianity is basically a reaction against Bible-believing, Bible-confident Christianity. As Agnes mentioned, one of the things that progressive Christianity would really protest is the idea that Jesus was actually something of a legal substitute for our sins, that God punished the Son on our behalf. This is absolutely, undeniably a clearly stated biblical doctrine. [00:22:18]
There are many dimensions to the work of Jesus at the cross, many dimensions, and the legal or penal substitution aspect is just one. You might say that it's the most important or one of the most important ones, but Jesus did so much more at the cross than die as the substitute in my place. But surely that is an important part of it. [00:24:11]
God has answers for us in His word, but we don't want to hear them. Then the problem isn't, "Oh, I just like to ask questions." No, the problem is you don't want the answers that God provides. So we shouldn't make people feel guilty or wrong or anything like that for asking legitimate questions. This is an important part of discipleship, of learning the Christian faith, of just walking through what God wants us to walk through as believers. [00:25:22]
God is in control, and prayer changes things. So let's be prayerful, let's be excited. Let's be excited not in circumstances, not in statistics, not in economics—maybe not a lot around us to get excited about—but listen, God is still on His throne, and God still works and moves. [00:31:37]
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